Lice AGAIN, please help!

[erinnyes]

I noticed that a couple of my free range hens had lice eggs on their feathers during a routine inspection... Ick. I don't know how they got them, but I went ahead and immediately dusted the whole flock with Sevin. I was VERY GENEROUS in how I dusted and used plenty, and there was a lot in the coop itself too. 10 days after that, I dusted thoroughly again, and thought that was that.

Several days after that, I noticed one of my hens looked a little bedraggled. Her feathers were breaking on her saddle area, and when I looked more closely her skin looks awful. Her skin is covered with a flakey yellowish crust on the saddle area, and that's where her feathers seem to be breaking, leaving small "stubs" of shaft behind. I also found an adult louse clambering around on my shirt after checking the coop one morning, and saw a few grayish eggs clustered at the base of the same hens's feathers near her vent area. I didn't see any adult lice on her at the time, but I guess where there are eggs, there's more!

I thought the Sevin dust would clear the lice up, but it seems that I have some survivors! Anyway, I was going through worming them this week. It's been 10 days since I put Wazine 17 in their waterer and I was already planning on using Ivermectin tonight on them. My question is, will this kill the remaining lice? There seems to be disagreement on this forum between whether these lice are blood-sucking or not, and if not I'm assuming Ivermectin will not help. Is this right? Is there another treatment I can do to kill them off for good? Or did I do something wrong?

Thank you for reading!

 

[klmclain1]

Hmmm.. did you completely clean out ALL the old bedding from the coop both times, then dust being sure to get into all cracks and crevices? That's one reason I like the idea of using liquid sevin or bleach for the coop itself. Gets in all the crevices.

 

[seminolewind]

I had that happen with one of my Jerseys a few months ago. I had to powder her a few times and wait 3 weeks in between. Finally I didn't notice any. You could also try Ivomec Eprinex (drop on neck) or try poultry dust, which is permethrin-different than sevin.

 

[erinnyes]

The second time I did not clean out the bedding

I did all my dusting inside the coop and I thought there would be enough Sevin inside already, especially since I believed that poultry lice didn't survive long off the host's body. But I guess that could easily be how she kept them. I mean, the 2nd time I dusted the bedding all throughout the coop was still looking pretty powdery white.

Is Ivormec Eprinex the same as Ivermectin? I have the sheep drench .08% that I'll be using in drops on the backs their necks. I was going to use it for worming anyway but am hoping this will also effect the lice. I may switch to poultry dust after this episode, and see if that isn't more effective. That and I used up all my Sevin on the last dusting.

 

[erinnyes]

Oh, and I forgot to add that I did use liquid Sevin both times on the roost and walls, etc. I then went over it with the powder. I thought I was being very thorough, and since it was onyl a little over a week since I did that thought I'd be safe not having do clean out the whole coop again.

 

[klmclain1]

I found this article (link below)...it has info on identification of poultry lice and mites, as well as treatments. It also talks about the fact that lice CAN eat blood, but don't necessarily do so. Therefore the ivermectin probably won't help...but possibly could. Sevin is one of the recommended treatments and this article recommends treating every 7-10 days until the pests are gone. Hang in there!

http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8162.pdf

 

[seminolewind]

Klm, I always thought that too, that lice don't suck the blood. But sevin seemed to work for me. Maybe they're eating the dead skin with the powder on it.

I think Dawg53 was the one who told me ivermectin and ivomec eprinex are not the same.
I think I'd be looking for poultry dust. Or just keep on with the sevin.

 

[klmclain1]

Yup.. personally I'd use Sevin too! Just gotta keep using it!

 

[erinnyes]

Last time ( the time I posted about above) I had had it with the poultry lice. I used Sevin and cleaned the whole coop, then dusted each bird doing it this way, only using Sevin in place of what this guy used:

I used tons of Sevin in the coop, it looked like freaking winter in there when I was done. I repeated the next week, and the week after. Three treatments in all, I spent hours doing all of it by myself. It seemed at that point that the poultry lice were gone.

BUT NO. I was going to give one of my young roosters away, and examined him tonight (he's going tomorrow) only to find he had some lice on him! It's only been a freaking month since I finished that last battle with the lice. I am SO SICK of fighting it. I literally am thinking of getting rid of my flock and just calling it quits, I am so frustrated. Not only do I have to tell this nice lady now that on good conscience I can't give her my roo, because he has parasites, but I have to start all over again with flock dusting and coop cleaning... and it feels like I just finished.

PLEASE help. Tell me what I'm doing wrong! Am I missing something? Is there a different treatment I can do? This is the 4th or 5th time (lost count) I've fought the lice and I haven't even had chickens a full year yet. Clearly something is wrong. Is there an instant-kill out there that is guaranteed to work? Because at this point I will try anything.

 

[erinnyes]

Anyone?